Nearing the Jamboree's End

The past day was quite fun.  After work a group of us went to the Holland House for a coffee (Coke in my case) and a Dutch snack.  One of our team is a hard-working Dutch man who owns 5 shoe stores back home, he suggested this snack.  Since the cafe closed at 10 pm - not long after our shift ended and our arrival there, we moved the gathering to the Dutch tent area where there we joined 10 others from Holland, Sweden, and Finland.

Our Dutch host served us coffee which I politely drank and salmon that had been smoked that afternoon.  The salmon was quite good.  They also had two treats in bags - one called double salty which was completely inedible, and black liquorice which is very popular in Sweden.  After an initial taste of each, they were discreetly put in my pants pocket.  In any case it was good to be part of the group and to hear Swedish and Dutch humor. 

Since today was my last day off and the sky was clear, I decided to get an early start and walk the two miles into Rinkeby.  This little village may have 200 people in it but would give me some local flavor and architecture.

After getting a mile into my journey down the gravel road, a car stopped and I noticed that my co-worker Anna and her husband were inside and offered me a lift.  He is in charge of the entire IST food service (30,000 meals each day).  They were going to the planning staff showers which are much nicer than what is found in camp.

Saying that I wanted to walk to Rinkeby, they instead suggested a small detour to Ähus which is on the coast about 7 KM away.  This was unexpected and eagerly said yes.  They dropped me off for an 1.5 hours while they went back and took showers.  I was able to walk around and see this small town which has a Danish feel.

In meeting them back at the town square, they suggested we go to a cafe and get some food.  I thought a pastry and coke would be nice, but what they have for breakfast is a sub sandwich.   They treated me to a meatball sandwich had a raspberry sauce and veggies inside.

After arriving back at camp, Anna's husband gave me a tour of the kitchen operation.  They were making 4000 sandwiches for tomorrow's lunch.  All food prep is done 24 hours in advance.  They were also making a butter sauce, steaming potatoes, and making more of the nasty cold cabbage salad.  That's at least what I call it.

As expected, the American leadership is completely uncommunicative.  We are now told that the email we received yesterday should be ignored.  Rumor has it that we are just to show up for a bus 6 hours before our flight.  Luckily, I don't have one but would like to get to Copenhagen as early as possible rather that be here at an empty and deteriorating camp.  That's all part of the experience of a Jamboree.  It is not for the fragile or anxious.  You just have to be patient, find humor in what seems dumb, and have the confidence that you'll figure out a solution to obstacles that fall in front of you.